The 54th Grammy Awards are happening this weekend (Feb 12) and given this is the first time I’ve remembered about this event prior to the day of, I thought I’d toss out some predictions.
Of course, this is a fairly futile exercise — and not just because I’m an Australian commenting on a US music industry awards show that I cannot even watch in real time. Every year the Grammy Award winners are notoriously impossible to predict. I lost faith in the Recording Academy’s judgment back in 1992, when they allowed a 20-year old re-recording of Eric Clapton’s “Layla” to beat out Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. That’s a real thing that happened.
There are 78 categories in this year’s Grammy Awards, but I’m just going to cover a few. Check out the full list of categories and nominees here.
Record Of The Year
Rolling In The Deep – Adele
Holocene – Bon Iver
Grenade – Bruno Mars
The Cave – Mumford & Sons
Firework – Katy Perry
Who will win: Adele. I don’t think I’ve met someone who doesn’t enjoy, or at the very least tolerate, “Rolling In The Deep,” at least until high rotation killed it. I cannot say that about any other song in this category.
Who should win: Anyone but Katy Perry, basically. The only thing that could be worse than “Firework” winning this category is if that song about Barbra Streisand won instead. I do enjoy a few Katy Perry tracks, but “Firework” is not one of them.
Album Of The Year
21 – Adele
Wasting Light – Foo Fighters
Born This Way – Lady Gaga
Doo-Wops & Hooligans – Bruno Mars
Loud – Rihanna
Who will win: Adele. *Spoiler* Adele’s next album will be named 23, after the number of golden gramophones that will be sitting on her bookshelf next week. My first thought re: this category was ‘Loud? Really?’ but then I remembered that it includes that one catchy song that won’t go away. When the world ends there will just be cockroaches and CD singles of “Cheers (Drink To That)”.
Who should win: PJ Harvey for Let England Shake or Bon Iver for Bon Iver. Sadly neither of those artists were nominated, so.
Song Of The Year
All Of The Lights – Kanye West
The Cave – Mumford & Sons
Grenade – Bruno Mars
Rolling In The Deep – Adele
Holocene – Bon Iver
Who will win: Adele or Kanye West, I guess? I’m a little confused over the difference between Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year.
Who should win: Lana Del Rey for “Video Games.” But don’t worry, Lana wasn’t eligible because she is not a real person. Kidding. She wasn’t eligible because she didn’t make the cut-off date. I’m sort of surprised that Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” didn’t get a look in. Also, wouldn’t it have been cool if tUnE-yArDs were nominated for “Bizness”?
Best New Artist
The Band Perry
Bon Iver
J Cole
Nicki Minaj
Skrillex
Who will win: Bon Iver told the Grammy organisers to get f*cked and I can’t help feeling like that could perhaps put them at a disadvantage. I think Nicki Minaj or Skrillex will own this one.
Who should win: Bon Iver or Nicki Minaj.
Best Pop Vocal Album
21 – Adele
The Lady Killer – Cee Lo Green
Born This Way – Lady Gaga
Doo-Wops & Hooligans – Bruno Mars
Loud – Rihanna
Who will win: Adele. I guess it’s possible (but not likely) that Lady Gaga might get a look in after last year’s ‘upset’ where The Fame Monster was beaten by Who Are The Arcade Fire. I’m not saying that Academy votes can be influenced by backlash from America’s youth, I’m just saying.
Who should win: Adele or Cee Lo Green.
Best Dance Album
Zonoscope – Cut/Copy
4×4=12 – Deadmau5
Nothing But The Beat – David Guetta
Body Talk, Pt. 3 – Robyn
Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites – Skrillex
Who will win: If Robyn doesn’t win this category then I’m quitting music. In fact I’ve already signed up for unemployment benefits because I’m feeling confident that Skrillex will take this one.
Who should win: Robyn.
Best Rap Album
Watch The Throne – Jay-Z & Kanye West
Tha Carter IV – Lil Wayne
Lasers – Lupe Fiasco
Pink Friday – Nicki Minaj
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – Kanye West
Who will win: Jay-Z and Kanye West.
Who should win: Kanye West for either of his albums. Love him or hate him, the guy had a really good year. Truth is I wouldn’t really be upset if any of these nominees won.
Best Rock Album
Rock ‘N’ Roll Party Honoring Les Paul – Jeff Beck
Wasting Light – Foo Fighters
Come Around Sundown – Kings Of Leon
I’m With You – Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Whole Love – Wilco
Who will win: The Foo Fighters. I haven’t actually heard their album but I’m gonna take a shot in the dark and assume that it sounds exactly the same as all of their other Grammy Award-winning albums.
Who should win: Of the artists who were nominated, Jeff Beck. Of the artists who should have been nominated, PJ Harvey for Let England Shake.
Best Alternative Music Album
Bon Iver – Bon Iver
Codes And Keys – Death Cab For Cutie
Torches – Foster The People
Circuital – My Morning Jacket
The King Of Limbs – Radiohead
Who will win: I think this category offers Bon Iver their best shot of taking home some gramo gold. All of the other albums are decent but they’re not Bon Iver decent.
Who should win: Bon Iver.
Agree? Disagree? Don’t really care? Leave your own predictions in the comments section.
I liked Bon Iver, but now it’s gotten to the point of tearing my own ears off than listening to it. Possibly that’s due to the fact that the type of places I frequent play the albums on rotation.
Loved Adele’s album – and it hasn’t lost its appeal despite the ridiculous level of exposure she’s had this year.
For me though, this has been Robyn’s year. Just pretty much love everything she’s done in the past year or two, pop perfection
If Robyn doesn’t win this category then I’m quitting music.
Same.
Codes And Keys is a killer album as well, though. I love me some Death Cab.
If Adele wins as many Grammy’s as she is predicted to win, I’m thnking her ex-boyfriend should get some kind of award as well since he’s at the root of most of her songs..I love her voice..Love her music..But I wish she would just burn down his house and get on with her life
Actually not only you thought of that. A year ago or so (anyway when the album was becoming popular), her boyfriend asked her part of the money she was making since he was the inspiration. It was something like rights on their love story. Obviously she refused.
I never knew that..What a tool!
Haha. “I am the inspiration. Give me the Grammy!” Imagine if Pink won a Grammy for ‘Dear Mr President’, should it have gone to George Bush cause he was the inspiration? Haha. Just kidding around :)
i am embarrassingly one of those people who thinks bon iver should win every prize, ever (yikes), so i feel like i’m going to be pretty disappointed.
I’m just pleased that Nicki Minaj was nominated for best rap album. Say what you will about her, and I do, but she’s doing things in one of the most male dominated fields of music, and as a woman I am pleased.
come on, Bruno Mars deserves to win at least one of the 6 awards he was nominated for
He would be my pick for Best Pop Solo Performance.
come on, bruno mars is a terrible singer and lyricists, you know it. He is a master of whiny melodramatic melancholy; did you even listen to grenade. Sounds like it was sung by a psychotic stalker ex. Too much, too much.
Unlike a lot of other musicians, Bruno Mars can actually sing well live. You may think “He is a master of whiny melodramatic melancholy” but he has 6 grammy nominations so he’s got to be doing something right.
maybe I’m just confused because I don’t generally watch award shows, but why the hell is Bon Iver up for best new artist? I didn’t think they were new
i was confused too
I think in Grammy-speak, Best New Artist nomination = a band/person that has been noticed by the mainstream within the last year (no matter how long they’ve actually been around). It’s a bummer that Grammy nominations seem to be equated with commercial success.
The woman recorded three albums in one year. And toured internationally. And she makes a bowl cut look couture. The Best Pop Artist of the Decade title (that’s a thing right?) has already been bestowed as far as I’m concerned.
So I used to get really annoyed when I didn’t understand the difference between record and song, so I made a point of actually learning the difference. Basically, record honors the performer (and producers/mixers I guess) and song honors the songwriter(s). Since a lot of artists write their own songs it can get confusing, but there is a reason for the two separate categories.
Anyway, I agree with everyone that Robyn deserves a grammy. Hands down.
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